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Welcome to The Quality Makers, an interview series highlighting pioneers in the direct-to-consumer space. Join us as we get an inside look at the world of digital shopping through the eyes of the individuals shaping it…
If you’re into men’s fashion – even a little – you’ve heard of Every Other Thursday. What started as a moodboard and sold-out hat has grown into a menswear brand with ‘it’ status.
Interestingly, EOT’s founder and CD Ethan Glenn never planned to work in fashion. Perhaps, I’ve concluded, that POV is what has helped the brand resonate so deeply. In this edition of Quality Makers, I asked Glenn about building a timeless brand in the age of social media, the power of staying true to your aesthetic, and why real-life wearability will always matter more than trends.
TQE: Can you tell us a little bit about your journey to start Every Other Thursday?
EG: “I actually have a culinary background. I worked in kitchens for a few years and then quickly realized that wasn't going to be my path. So, I started doing photography and video work on the side. I made my way into some marketing agencies and was working for some big influencers and brands. Then, in the pandemic, I started doing social media for myself on TikTok and that took off; I jumped into it which turned into a full-time job pretty quickly. I knew that I wanted to have something bigger come out of that and not just be an influencer forever.
At the time, I had Every Other Thursday as a moodboard. It was just photos on Instagram that I loved and posted. Then, one summer, I made a hat. Everyone wanted to buy it, so then I made a bunch. They sold, and then it just snowballed into something much bigger from there.”
TQE: You’ve built this brand entirely within the social media era. How do you create something that feels timeless in such a fast-moving, trend-driven environment?
EG: “I think that the men's side is a little bit different because you can be less trend driven. I'm not someone that really subscribes to a lot of trends or shops that way. For me, it's pretty easy to make the basics that I wear every day. Our main premise, since the beginning, has been ‘made for real life.’ Everything we make is something that either I wear all the time or want to wear all the time. Luckily the audience has connected with that, and really sees through that superficial or trend driven side of things.
For us, it's just clothes that everyone wants to wear, whether you're a fashion nerd or you're just someone that buys the same shirts from Buck Mason. We fill this little gap of a cool young brand that's making good clothes at the end of the day.”
TQE: You launched with hats that sold out almost immediately. Looking back now, do you think that early success came more from instinct, timing, community, or understanding internet culture?
EG: “To be honest, I think timing was a huge part. When I started doing TikTok full-time in early 2021, it was right after the initial lockdowns were lifted. People weren't on TikTok in that way, at least on the men's side. I was able to create something out of nothing in a space before it got too saturated. Once I had that audience, the ability to shift into someone buying something is easy if you make the right product and you have the right people.
I was making videos about my life and what I was wearing. People would comment, ‘where's that from?’ And if you're someone who wears vintage clothes most of the time, that's hard to link to. I saw that as an opportunity to design clothes that fit my style, my aesthetic, and were a little more interesting than what you could find on the shelf in most places. That also gave me something to link to when I wore it. It started with a hat, then progressed to a sweatshirt, then pants, and it just kind of snowballed from there.”
TQE: What are your three favorite pieces on site right now?
“My three favorites have also become our three best sellers, which is really amazing. Our fatigue pants have been a bestseller for a couple years now. That took a long time to develop. It's based on vintage military pants, and we went through a lot of fabric rounds. Finding the right washed, lived-in feel was really important.
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“Another one is a relaxed dress shirt. That was one of the first things I knew I wanted to make. There are a million different button shirts out there, but a lot of the shirts I loved wearing were from the 80s and 90s which had a little bit more of a relaxed fit. They were something you could wear untucked or tucked in. That's also one of our top sellers, and we've now expanded it across multiple fabrics, colors, patterns, and prints. It's been amazing with both men and women, which is really fun to see.”
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“Third, this winter we introduced a leather jacket as well as a suede version. This was a much higher price tag than anything we typically do. We usually stay in the $150 to $300 range, and this was four or five times that. Seeing something that premium price still connect with the customer and fit into our world was super amazing. It's something I wear all the time.”
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TQE: You've spoken about thoughtful pricing and timeless silhouettes being major drivers of growth. How do you balance accessibility with aspiration when building the brand?
EG: “I think that's been one of the hardest things about building the brand. As someone with no formal experience on the finance, pricing, or development side, this was all new to me. Originally when we started pricing items, I got the cost by thinking ‘how much do I want to pay for this?’ Then, you find out years later that it was severely undervalued based on the market.
Because we are a DTC company, we’re able to keep prices lower. We don't have any middlemen, and we don't have any wholesale margins to work in, so, we're able to have a more attainable price bracket than a lot of brands at a similar quality or style level.”
TQE: Every Other Thursday has a very specific point of view aesthetically. How do you personally define good taste? And has your definition evolved as the brand has grown?
EG: “I think taste is super subjective. Everyone has their own version of it. I think some of the people that have the best taste aren't on the internet at all. It's a really interesting dichotomy – I want to create and I want to put things on the internet, whether that's for the brand or for myself, but I also feel like if you share too much, suddenly, you're just a victim to everything else that's out there.
Finding your own little world and staying in that is really important. So for us, since the beginning, we've tried to build our little world and stick within it. There's a lot of opportunities when building a brand where you see someone doing something really successful — maybe it's hopping on a trend or a certain type of photography — and you think, ‘wow, that's killing it. I should do that too.’ But if it doesn't match with your initial aesthetic or your mission, I think you can get lost in it.
I often get asked, ‘I'm trying to build a brand, do you have any advice?’ And the biggest thing I always tell people is just be true to yourself. If you make something that you truly love, eventually it will connect with the right people. Whereas if you're just trying to meet as many people as possible, it's not going to land in the same way. People can see through that, especially now, when there are thousands of influencers all doing the same relative type of thing. If you find your own little niche, I think that's really powerful.”
TQE: What was the biggest surprise to you starting a fashion lifestyle brand?
EG: “I think the biggest surprise was me actually going into fashion. I went to culinary school. I was doing photography. I never once thought, ‘oh, I should make some clothes.’
Although I am the one designing everything, it's a much more loose term — I'm designing the aesthetic and the world we want to live in. Then, I have people help me when I actually need to create the physical products.
Another one of the biggest surprises was that I could actually learn how to do this and it can really translate. I think that's one of the reasons why we've been successful. People are seeing the brand as its own world that you're buying into. It’s an extension of an aesthetic. We're so focused on the art direction and the general look of everything, combined with how the product actually fits. Those are two driving forces, and if you can combine the two, it's super powerful.”
TQE: Where does most of your inspiration for the brand and the product come from? What's creatively inspiring you right now — books, films, magazines, people's stories?
EG: “Since before it was a brand, and Every Other Thursday was just a mood board, it was full of images from the 70s, 80s, and 90s: old ad campaigns, movie stills, general photos. A lot of our pieces now are inspired by vintage garments. The fatigue pants are inspired by a 50’s army pant that you can't buy new. We've recreated it with our lens and our tweaks.
A lot of our other products go for a more relaxed fit, working back to the 90’s and the way things were a little more billowy back then. I'm an eBay fanatic, and I'm always looking for stuff— whether it's a fabric, a fit, or a pocket shape — something that sparks an inspiration that we can bring into a product we're working on.
On the marketing side, my biggest goal is that I wanted Instagram to look like the moodboard did five years ago before we had any product. We typically go for a very natural campaign. One of the biggest for us that I still love — we shot a friend of mine who looks a lot like JFK Jr., before the show was popular. We found some old paparazzi photos of him and took some casual photos around New York. They performed so well for us, and then fast forward a year, it became the biggest pop culture moment of the last few months. Some of our photos even snuck into compilations that people didn't realize weren't real paparazzi shots.
We always look to do stuff like that. The way people sold products back then was about building a lifestyle. A lot of our images are not product callouts — it's a person styled in a setting, focused on the atmosphere, the activity, the general ambiance, something that you feel like you could put yourself in. And so it all goes back to that moodboard.”
TQE: You’ve experienced very impressive growth in the last five years. Where do you hope the brand will be five years from now?
EG: “With the success we've seen in retail so far, I think there'll be some retail expansion — whether that's full stores or more extended pop-ups. Pop-ups are a really great way to integrate with the community and feel like it's permanent, even though it's just for a handful of weeks. I think a lot of people say retail is dead, but if you do it right, there's a lot of opportunity, especially today when everyone has a brand that's online. You need some way to differentiate yourself. With products like ours that aren't logo or graphic driven, you need to be able to try it on and feel it.”
Ready to see what the hype is about? Shop Glenn's favorite pieces, including the Fatigue Pant, Relaxed Dress Shirt, and Leather Thomas Jacket, on Every Other Thursday.
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